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“But I’m guessing those people are all a few sheets to the wind.”
“Well, fair enough,” Evan agreed. “Still, you might find it helpful to talk about it.”
I sighed. The truth, of course, was that Icouldn’ttalk about the results of a federal investigation into a branch of the US military. I couldn’t even tell my father precisely what I had found, so I definitely couldn’t confide in a bartender I’d just met.
However, perhaps there was a way for me to discuss my personal situation without going into detail. Itwouldbe good to get some of this stuff off my chest—and Evan was a safe person to talk to because he didn’t know me or care about what I had done.
He was just being nice. And probably trying to earn a bigger tip since he wasn’t going to be selling me any liquor.
“I’m having trouble at work,” I managed to say.
“Oh,” Evan said sympathetically. “Bad boss?”
“Well, actually, but that isn’t really the problem.”
“What’s the problem?”
“My boss has me working on… a project with a guy… from another company.”
“Oh, andthatguy’s the jerk?”
“How did you know that anyone was a jerk?”
“When a woman makes that face, there’s always a jerk involved,” Evan said wisely.
“Well, all right, yes, he’s a jerk,” I said.
“What did he do?”
“He’s disrespectful. He tries to block me from completing the project successfully—I guess he wants to see me fail.” That wasn’t fair—I knew Brian didn’t just take pleasure in seeing me do badly—but there was no other way to explain it. Besides, I wasn’t particularly inclined to be fair to him now. “Every time I think I’m making progress, he pulls the rug out from under me.”
“Yeah, he sounds like an asshole, all right.”
“He definitely is.” It felt great to say these things about Brian and finally let some of my anger out. “I would rather be working with almost anyone else in the world. And then, today, he accused me of trying to use my sex appeal to get ahead, which is so unfair.”
Evan laughed.
“It isn’t funny,” I said hotly.
“No, I know that,” Evan said. “It’s just… you know. That’s what guys say when they’re attracted to a woman and feel like they shouldn’t be. They can never admit that it’s their fault for letting themselves look too long at a woman in a professional context, so they’ll accuse her of being a slut.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Done it myself, I’m ashamed to say,” Evan said. “We used to have a hot girl working behind the bar here. I couldn’t focus on my job. Kept giving people the wrong change or overpowering the tequila, and when the owner confronted me about it, I blamed her. Said she was distracting me.”
“You’re kind of a dick, then.”
“Yup. I was,” Evan agreed. “Biggest mistake of my life. Poor girl quit her job over it—she’s got a better job now at a luxurious hotel bar across town. But I have to deal with the fact that I made this a hostile place for her. I regret it all the time.”
“You seem pretty aware of what an asshole you were.”
“Yeah, one of my buddies called me out when I tried to tell him what I’d done,” Evan said. “Sounds to me like someone needs to tell your man he’s not being respectful.”
“I don’t know that he’d listen to that.”
“Maybe not. Some guys won’t,” Evan said. “You sure I can’t get you a real drink? On me.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’m not in the mood, though.”
